This Dog for Hire

day!”
    “No, no, look!” I was paging through the catalog. “Here it is, ‘Benching hours,’ ” I read aloud, “ ‘eleven-thirty to eight P.M.’ See?” I shoved it in his face. “Dennis, this is really important. Eight A.M. In the lobby. We’ll be at the Garden before nine, by eight-thirty if we’re lucky. Trust me.”
    “Okay,” he said. I must have been ranting, because he looked at me as if I was. “Eight A.M. Bailey House. In the lobby. And you’re not going to explain this, right?”
    “Right,” I said, grabbing my coat. “Not just yet.”
    And like a husky let off leash, I was gone.

21
    You Can Recommend Me

    RONALD WAS IN the lobby waiting. I handed him the milk shake.
    “It’s all set,” he said, holding the shake with both hands. “To, you know, go upstairs and see John."
    Dennis arrived on time with Magritte tucked under his arm. We headed for the elevator.
    I walked into John’s room alone. He appeared to be asleep.
    “Will?”
    He opened his eyes. “Oh, it the dog lady. Where he at?” He picked his head up to look beyond me.
    “He’s not here today, Will, but I have to ask you some questions about another dog, the one you saw on the Christopher Street pier. The one who frightened you because he didn’t bark. Remember?”
    “I’n’t remember nothin’ from then,” he said looking suspicious. “Why you aks?”
    “Well, there was a young man murdered that night.”
    He looked away, toward the window.
    “Billy?”
    “Yeah, a young man murder’d.”
    “And you were the one who told the police that there was a body on the pier. Remember?”
    “A body. Yeah.”
    “Billy, did you see the young man before he got killed? Did you see him walking with the little dog onto the pier? Think hard, Bill, it’s so important.” “No,” he said, “Ah di’n’t see tha’.”
    “I have the little dog here, Bill. The one you saw. The one you were afraid of because he didn’t bark, remember? The one you saw on the Christopher Street pier.”
    “Oh shit,” he said.
    “Now listen to me, Bill, this dog does not bite. He doesn’t bark because he can’t. Did you hear him make some other sounds that night, like cries?”
    I ducked back into the hall where Dennis, Magritte, and Ronald were standing and lifted Magritte into my arms. I stepped back into the room but stayed right at the door. Billy didn’t move. I bent and kissed Magritte on top of his head, and he lifted his muzzle and licked my mouth. I could feel the heat of his body where I held him against my side.
    “He’s a very gentle dog. Bill, or I wouldn’t have brought him. I thought if you saw him again, it might help you to remember what you saw.”
    “I never forget what I sees tha’ time.”
    “How come?”
    “Be a hard night.” Billy Pittsburgh squeezed his eyes shut. A single tear rolled down one cheek.
    “Bill, was the young man already dead when you first saw him?”
    Billy Pittsburgh sat bolt upright in his bed. “Does I look like a doctor? Hey, I’m not a doctor. I’m a fucking dope addict. How’m I s’posed to know if he alive or dead?” He shook his head. “No sir. I don’t know nothin’ about that. What you aksing me that fo’?” He fell back against his pillow, all his energy gone as suddenly as it came.
    “Billy?”
    “Okay. Okay. I hears you.” He pulled the cover up to his neck, his hands shaking badly. “He ’live.”
    “But you said you didn’t see him walking onto the pier with his dog, with this dog?”
    “You aks me if I sees th’ man goin’ wit th’ dawg. I di’n’t. He go alone.”
    “Alone? Are you sure?”
    “I sure. Man, I sure I do not wanna do this.”
    “Please, Bill. Please help us out.”
    “Okay. You aks me. I goin’ tell it.” He held up one trembling finger. “Car comes.” Then a second finger. “A white man take th’ dawg an’ drag ’im out th’ pier, t’ th’ end. He tie him they.” A third finger, his thumb, the nail bitten short. “He go back t’ th’ car and he sit they.”
    His hand was shaking so badly he put it under the blanket.
    “Th’ young white man come,” he continued. “Th' dawg, th’ one you got, he carryin’ on, somethin’ awful. The young ’un, he hears ’im an he start t’ run t im.
    Billy’s eyes are now full, and tears, one after the other, slide down his cheeks.
    “And th’ first man, th’ man in th’ car, he start up the motor, he put the lights on and he drive after th’ second man.”
    He